There are many types of chandeliers in the market. One of the considerations in the design of a chandelier is the trade off between ease of assembly and the shipping space the chandelier requires. Generally, the less assembly a given chandelier requires, the greater is its pre-installation shipping volume. For example, if a chandelier is knocked down to its elemental components, usually a central body, a set of arms, a set of bulb sockets and associated wiring and hanging apparatus, those components may be easily nested among each other to minimize the shipping volume. However, the shipping benefit tends to be offset by the relative complexity of the assembly required by a consumer. On the other hand, a fully assembled, ready-for-installation version of such a chandelier utilizes valuable space during shipping, adding to the cost of the product.
Various inventive concepts have been promulgated over the years aiming at a middle ground in the assembly-vs.-shipping volume trade-off. For example, Schonbek in U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,173 discloses a chandelier with removable arms which may be fixed into the correct position on a mounting plate of the central column during lamp assembly. It is possible to ship the central column separate from the arms, thus enabling the shipper to nest the arms with the column in an economical manner. However, in this disclosure, although the chandelier's arms are separable from the central column, the electrical wiring is not able to be disconnected at the same mechanical junction. This requires the end-user to have at least rudimentary mechanical and electrical knowhow to complete assembly of the lamp.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,562, Bayer et al. discloses a totally separable-arm concept wherein the arm is shipped completely detached from the mounting plate. In this invention, a socket and plug electrical connection mechanism is integrated with the arm-to-mounting plate connecting mechanism. However, this type of electrical connection and the mechanical attachment means of the arm to the mounting plate are cumbersome and make the lamp relative expensive to produce.
A better version of the separable-arm concept is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,867 by Más Quiles et al. In that disclosure, the column-to-arm connection is based on a simple mechanical coupling with flat electrical contacts, held together within the coupling. While this design is more economical, it is still a relatively expensive attachment mechanisms and limits the flexibility of the design of the lamp.
The above inventions, although being relatively expensive, do permit a breakdown of the chandelier for shipping. However, all the designs require loose-part assembly by the end user. Stepping back in history, Goralnik in U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,866 first discloses a chandelier with non-detachable, rotatable arms. In one embodiment of the invention, the arms are rotatably engaged with the mounting plate such that the arms are positioned generally parallel to each other for shipping and then rotated into a snap-locked, fixed position during assembly by the end user. The idea of having the arms fold without being detached is beneficial for several reasons. First, there is less likelihood that the correct number of arms will not ship with the lamp. Second, there is less likelihood of end-user error or breakage when it comes to assembly. Third, simply folding the arms into place is generally preferable to having to both attach and position the arms. Finally, the folding design avoids the expense of the integrated mechanical/electrical connection.
However, the nature of Goralnik's pivot-facilitating mechanism is fairly rudimentary. The snap-lock scheme is good for a one-time-only use of the inventive idea, after which, the end-user would find difficulty repeating. The design is also generally labor and material intensive and prone to failure of the arm to slide plate connection.
Other designs observed in the marketplace provide for an arm folding mechanism which utilizes a spring washer or similar feature at the arm-to-connection box. These designs require that the arms pass vertically through the top of the connection box, thus limiting the design options for the chandelier.
Therefore a more versatile, more reliable and less expensive mechanism for collapsing a chandelier for shipping without disconnecting the arms and electrical components is desired.